XSLT

Name

<xsl:for-each> — Acts as XSLT’s iteration operator. This element has a select attribute that selects some nodes from the current context.

Category

Instruction

Required Attributes

select

Contains an XPath expression that selects nodes from the current context.

Optional Attributes

None.

Content

<xsl:for-each> contains a template that is evaluated against each of the selected nodes. The <xsl:for-each> element can contain one or more <xsl:sort> elements to order the selected nodes before they are processed. All <xsl:sort> elements must appear first, before the template begins.

Appears in

<xsl:for-each> appears inside a template.

Defined in

XSLT section 8, Repetition.

Example

We’ll demonstrate the <xsl:for-each> element with the following stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:output method="text"/> <xsl:variable name="newline"> <xsl:text> </xsl:text> </xsl:variable> <xsl:variable name="complicatedVariable"> <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="count(//listitem) > 10"> <xsl:text>really long list</xsl:text> </xsl:when> <xsl:when test="count(//listitem) > 5"> <xsl:text>moderately long list</xsl:text> </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise> <xsl:text>fairly short list</xsl:text> </xsl:otherwise> </xsl:choose> </xsl:variable> <xsl:template match="/"> <xsl:value-of select="$newline"/> <xsl:text>Here is a </xsl:text> <xsl:value-of select="$complicatedVariable"/> <xsl:text>:</xsl:text> <xsl:value-of select="$newline"/> <xsl:variable name="listitems" ...